The SpaceX Launch Explosion Explained in Geeky Detail With MS Paint

To non-rocket-scientists (and those who don’t play Kerbal Space Program), discussions of rocket science can sometimes get a little overly technical. To fully explain what we know about the SpaceX explosion in a non-PhD way, here’s some MS Paint-quality graphics to lay it out for you.

In the video above, YouTuber Scott Manley does a good job of breaking down the big details about the recent SpaceX launch explosion. On a conference call yesterday, SpaceX reported preliminary findings that an overloaded strut inside the liquid oxygen broke free thanks to the G-force during launch, causing a chain reaction that eventually resulted in a fireball, 983 milliseconds later.

It’s an interesting insight into not just the details of the rocket construction and crash, but also the forensic data-mining undertaken since the explosion. [YouTube]